In case you needed more evidence that the internet, left unfettered, is awful: Boaty McBoatface has now won the poll to name an upcoming polar research vessel.
Last month, the Natural Environment Research Council opened a poll, asking internet strangers what they should name their new boat. Rather than going with a shortlist of options, they made it wide open—so predictably, the internet rallied behind Boaty McBoatface.
The option collected 124,109 votes, four more times than second-placed RRS Poppy-Mai. Honorable mention goes to RRS It’s bloody cold here, which rolled in fourth, with 10,679 votes. Before you get too excited, remember that the final naming decision does rest with the NERC.
It’s been a good year for the internet: first a bunch of hockey fans sent an enforcer to the NHL All-Star game (and won him a car); now a major scientific research project is getting a dumb (if endlessly hilarious) name suggestion.
What about the former BBC presenter who started the whole thing? Well, he’s doing an admirable job of not gloating.
You played with it for hours on end after it was first released, but by the time The Force Awakens hit theaters months later, you had probably lost interest in your Sphero BB-8. But don’t bury the little droid in a drawer just yet, because a free app will make your BB-8 even more exciting than the day you first opened it.
The biggest fad in the toy industry right now is the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math education) movement, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It was started as a clever way to introduce kids to intimidating educational topics through the use of fun toys and games. Kids have the opportunity to discover that challenging fields of study can actually be quite enjoyable, and it’s led to a boon in educational toys.
The problem is that many toymakers have latched onto STEM as merely a buzzword to throw around in marketing materials, when in reality the toy has little educational value. Is a preschooler really going to learn how to code by connecting the pieces of a giant rolling caterpillar together? That’s debatable.
But Sphero, makers of BB-8 and the original remote controlled ball that the droid toy was built on, have wholeheartedly (and properly) embraced STEM with an impressive app environment revealed a few months ago. The SPRK Lightning Lab app (available for Android, iOS, or other devices) allows anyone to write custom programs for Sphero’s rolling ball with an impressive amount of control and access to the toy’s capabilities, but with an approach that won’t frustrate amateurs, or limit experienced developers.
Back in August of last year the Sphero SPRK Edition—a clear version of the rolling ball toy that reveals all of the electronic components that power it—was announced and made available to schools who wanted a more engaging approach to programming through robotics.
But here’s the not-so-secret about the SPRK Lightning Lab app: it works with all the toys that Sphero currently sells—including BB-8—and it’s free for anyone to download and use.
You can still control and steer BB-8 around using touchscreen controls in the SPRK Lightning Lab app, but you won’t have access to all the sound effects or other special features that are included in its own app. That’s OK, though, because those will all soon be forgotten once you start playing around with the powerful drag and drop programming capabilities of the SPRK app.
When it comes to robots, Sphero and BB-8 are admittedly limited in terms of what they can actually do—at least compared to something like ATLAS. But thanks to an array of sensors (including a gyroscope and accelerometer) packed inside the plastic balls, and precision-controlled motors, there’s a surprising amount of control and flexibility within the SPRK app when it comes to not only programming how Sphero, Ollie, and BB-8 move, but also how they react to their environment and obstacles.
The whole point of a STEM toy is not only foster learning, but to also allow a child’s skills and knowledge to grow while they play. The graphical drag and drop interface of the SPRK Lightning Lab app is a tried-and-true approach to introducing someone to the intricacies and logic of coding, but at some point it will become limiting. So the app also allows users to manually edit the OVAL code which is the underlying programming language that powers Sphero, Ollie, and BB-8.
Users can quickly jump back and forth between the raw code and the graphical layout of their program, which can often help make it easier to understand what’s going on, and sometimes even what’s going wrong.
The SPRK Lightning Lab app will even appeal to those who have no desire to learn how to code or program, but are looking to squeeze some more replay value from the BB-8 they spent $150 on. The app provides access to an ever-growing community of Sphero hackers who have uploaded and shared their custom programs for anyone to download, dissect, and modify as they see fit.
The programs vary in complexity. Some simply give BB-8 the ability to liven up a party as a rolling, flashing disco ball, while others turn the droid into a color-coded Magic 8 Ball that can detect and make a prediction whenever it’s thrown into the air, using the built in accelerometer. The community is a great way to discover new ideas and techniques for programming BB-8, and can be a valuable resource if you’re stuck on a problem and need a little inspiration, or a different approach.
If you need any other reason to download and try the SPRK Lightning Lab app with your BB-8, just remember that Sphero designed it to be an educational tool for schools to help introduce kids to programming. So every time you upload a program you’ve tweaked to perfection, you can feel good about helping the children of tomorrow learn a valuable skill—in addition to having a great reason to play with BB-8 again.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
While building a 3D model of the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, archivists at the Smithsonian uncovered hand-written notes and markings in areas of the spacecraft not seen in more than 40 years. The remarkable etchings offer a new glimpse into what life was life on the way to the Moon.
Recently, every single nook and cranny of Columbia was scoured as curators, collectors, and conservationists from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Digitization Program Office built a detailed, high-resolution 3D model of the spacecraft. This project allowed them to view areas inside the capsule that hadn’t been seen for decades, and they found some pretty interesting things. The archivists observed and recorded hand-written notes, math figures, and a calendar. These items reveal the degree of improvisation that took place during the historic first mission to the Moon.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
These notes (above), written by Michael Collins, shows how he tried to pinpoint the exact location of the Lunar Module (LM) Eagle on the lunar surface as he orbited the Moon alone in Columbia. At the time, Collins was using coordinates sent to him from Houston, and he referenced them to this map. He wasn’t successful in this task, but given this new information, historians may actually be able to figure out how and why NASA and Collins went wrong. And in fact, this effort is currently underway.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Storage spaces were made available to the astronauts, along with a detailed stowage list of where everything was supposed to go. During the mission, however, it appears the astronauts started improvising a bit on where certain things should go. Locker R5 was supposed to store auxiliary equipment related to the spacecraft’s waste management system. As this photo shows (above), however, the astronauts decided to use it for something else: a place to store their urine bags. According to the Smithsonian, they stored their urine in these lockers early in the flight before the normal waste disposal system went online. They must have written this note on the wall to remind themselves that this locker should probably be left alone for the duration of the mission.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
A small hand-drawn calendar was also discovered, located just below one of the lockers. Each day of the mission can be seen, from July 16 to 24, and every day is crossed out except the final one. The capsule splashed down in the early hours of July 24, a date that remains untouched.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
In this archive photo above, NASA’s John Hirasaki can bee seen inside the capsule during the quarantine period. If you look carefully behind him, you can see the calendar. Love the duct tape framing.
Really, incredible stuff. Analysis of these items is ongoing, so the Smithsonian may reveal more insights soon.
In this video multiple scenarios are tested for the time it takes to fire 30 rounds from two 15 round magazines, three 10 round magazines and five 6 round magazines. Watch below.
It’s a beautiful ballet, if you ask me. There’s a peacefulness to seeing things get destroyed in slow motion, it’s like the shock and horror is removed because all the shrapnel dances away elegantly. This destruction porn video is especially great because you get to see it happen at normal speed (completely unsatisfying but still hilarious) and in slow motion (totally satisfying and graceful).
Also, the use of an upside down lawn mower to do the bidding is a great touch.
You need a large room to strip and reassemble an airplane—especially when it’s the biggest one in your fleet. In this panoramic photo you can see a half assembled Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy during a major inspection at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
All C-5 aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory undergo an eight-year scheduled maintenance timeline, with one of four inspections occurring at regular two-year intervals. Such a major inspection–which includes a complete disassembly and re-assembly–takes approximately 55 days, and more than 100 staff can be working on the aircraft at any given moment.
How is it anyone can look at the facts known about the San Bernardino terrorist attack and come to the conclusion that what we need is another law disarming American citizens?
People cannot agree on gun control laws in America, but one point is not in doubt: Gun sales are on the rise. Following mass shootings, of which we have plenty, firearm manufacturers and retailers confirm that sales increase.
Which begs the question: Is there an attendant increase in the sales of firearm-storing furniture? When we looked at the stuff last year, it certainly seemed to be booming, and these days it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Absent the politics, the furniture itself is fascinating as it poses a unique storage design challenge: End users want the furniture to visually conceal their goods, yet they want lightning-quick access to it. This often means that end users are seeking to integrate gun storage into some very central pieces of furniture—like dining tables:
Or coffee tables:
Or buffets:
Or the couch:
Others feel the bed is the best place for them:
I desperately want to believe this is for storing documents or cash:
For still others, the bathroom (this has got to be a gag):
In short, it seems these designers have collectively sought out every square inch of dead space and turned it into usable storage.
A lot of these ideas can, of course, be adapted to hold non-firearm-related items. So whether you’re pro- or anti-gun, perhaps some of these ideas will inspire you in designing your own storage-related pieces.